Marion County voters to decide on $140 million parks bond

Marion County voters will decide whether to take on $140 million in debt to buy land and fix up parks.

The ballot question would let the county issue bonds to pay for trails, parks, and conservation work on farms, forests, and water resources. Repayment would come from a property tax of up to 0.35 mills, which works out to about $35 a year for each $100,000 of taxable property value. At least 70% of the money would go to capital projects, such as design, engineering, and construction. Another 10% to 20% would pay for buying land or signing conservation easements with landowners. County staff have marked a park shortage on the west side of Marion, and the funds would help build two new regional parks, one in the northwest and one in the southwest. Parks and Recreation Director Jim Couillard told a commission workshop in August that local money on hand could also draw in private, state, or federal dollars.

The referendum lands on the same ballot as Amendment 3, a statewide proposal from state lawmakers. That measure would raise the homestead exemption to $150,000 in January, then to $250,000 in 2028. The current exemption sits at $50,000. For non-homestead property, Amendment 3 would cut the yearly cap on assessment growth from 10% to 5%. Marion County projects about $317 million in property tax revenue over the next two fiscal years without Amendment 3. With it, the county would be short nearly $88 million in that same period. Couillard said Amendment 3 would cut the parks and recreation budget by close to 50%, which would mean dropping more than 25 jobs and closing or outsourcing 22 of the county's 55 parks.

Supporters point to wear at existing parks. Baseline Trailhead Park, south of Ocala, has safety surfacing that has "exceeded its expected life" and may no longer meet industry standards, according to the county's capital improvement plan. Ocala led the nation in metro growth from 2024 to 2025, Census data released this year shows. Lauren Debick, who chairs the political action committee Protect Marion 2026, said demand will keep climbing: "As more people start to come to this community, more people are using the facilities. They're using the parks, they're using the outdoor spaces." The county's 55 parks trace back in part to a $20 million bond program voters approved in 1988, known as "Pennies for Parks," which carried a tax of up to 0.5 mills. The county stopped collecting that tax in 2015.

Some residents back the measure. Equine photographer Mary Phelps, who keeps six ponies on a 20-acre farm near Ocala, called an added 0.35 mills a "negligible" cost. Others do not. Randy Osborne, Marion County Republican State Committeeman, said a sales tax would spread the cost more fairly. "There's a lot of people that use those parks that aren't homeowners," Osborne said. Patricia "PG" Schafer, the county's Republican state committeewoman, said the people she has talked to mostly plan to vote no. The Republican Party's voter guide takes no position and tells Marion voters to make up their own minds. Amendment 3 would leave Florida counties down more than $5 billion in property tax revenue by fiscal year 2028-29, according to the Florida Association of Counties.

Nancy deCavaignac's 10-acre horse farm sits inside the Farmland Preservation Area, where the county's comprehensive plan requires protecting open space and rural lighting. She has watched the roads grow from two lanes to four. "If we can't preserve parts of it, then it's just going to be paved over," deCavaignac said. Phelps, who backs both the bond and Amendment 3, said she would rather tax tourism: "I think for the state of Florida, since we have such a huge influx of tourism, that we should tax that more." Schafer called backing both measures at once "oxymoronic." The Marion County referendum and Amendment 3 both go before voters on the same ballot.